Do you have a THORN in your flesh?

2Co 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

A thorn in the flesh.

Do you have a thorn in your flesh?

Do you have something in you- a messenger of Satan buffeting you?

1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

Job 2:7  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 

Paul knew he had a thorn in his flesh, and he knew that thorn was placed there by Satan, and allowed to be there by God's plan. Did he like the thorn in his flesh? NO. He prayed for it to be taken away three times. Now this is a man of God, an Apostle who saw Jesus and whose life was changed by our Savior. This is a man who could pray for people and heal them. This is a man whose very touch of a garment sent to an ailing person could heal them.

Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 

Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. 

This man could NOT pray away the thorn in the flesh. He stopped praying for it to be taken away after he did so three times. Why? Because He knew if God hadn't taken it away there was a reason for its existence in his life. Did that make it any less a messenger of Satan to torment Him? NO. What it did was give Paul knowledge that God has His reasons beyond our comprehension for the trials and tribulations, the chronic ailments in mind and body. We don't have to believe that we are lacking faith when our lives are not transformed- when thorns are not removed from our flesh. Satan would have us believe that we are to blame for these thorns and he wants the thorns we possess to damage us spiritually. Satan wants us to focus on our thorns and lament their existence in our lives. Satan would have the thorns we bear consume us, devouring every last hope we have of belonging wholly to Christ.

Paul would have been exalted above measure if he wasn't given the messenger of Satan in that thorn buried in his flesh, whatever that thorn may have been. Paul knew that God needed Him to be humbled by his imperfection, not crippled by unbelief that God was still in His life as he possessed this thorn of Satan. How many do you suppose may have uttered the words that he healed others but couldn't heal himself? How many focused on Paul's thorn to their detriment? How many allowed that thorn in his flesh to bring them closer to the Lord, realizing Paul, was indeed LIKE THEM and not some God to be worshiped?

Again I ask you, do you have a thorn in your flesh? Something you've prayed for God to remove only that prayer answered, wasn't the answer you desired. Will you endlessly ask God to remove that thorn from your flesh, never accepting that it may be His will for it to be left in your flesh to keep you on the path He has set before you, a path that would keep you His.

May God help us, bless us, keep us in HIM now and forever, all through Jesus Christ our LORD and our SAVIOR! 

Faith

Faith-   Please, Lord, increase my faith, make my faith true all through You and Your love.

Luk 17:5  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. 

Luk 17:6  And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. 

Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

2Th 1:3  We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 

The Will of Him That Sent Me.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. 

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 

(Excerpt - The Spiritual Man -by Watchman Nee)

'We need to comprehend the true way by which God leads man, and the relationship between man’s will and the will of God.

The obedience of the Christian to God ought to be unconditional.

When his spiritual life reaches the summit his will shall be perfectly one with God’s. This does not imply, however, that he has no more volition of his own. It is still there; only the fleshly control of it is gone.

God always requires man’s volition to cooperate with Him in fulfilling His will.

By beholding the example of our Lord Jesus we can be assured that the volition of anyone fully united with God is still very much with him.

“I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me”; “not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me”; “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (John 5.30, 6.38; Luke 22.42). Here do we see the Lord Jesus Who, though one with the Father, yet possesses His Own personal will apart from that of the Father. He has His Own will but neither seeks nor does that will. The implication is obvious that all who truly are united with God should place their will alongside His. They should not annihilate their organ of volition.'

If our Savior could say -

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

• we have to realize that our Savior truly had a WILL of his own and blatantly said He came 'NOT' to do HIS OWN WILL.    We know that His will would never be contrary to His Father's, but He has a will all His own separate from the Father's that He chooses to give to the Father so He can fully do God's will and NOT His own.

Did allowing God's will to be done in Him lessen Jesus in any way? NO. When Jesus allowed God's will to be done in Him, He became fully, wholly all He ever wanted to be.  Satan has fooled us into believing that we of our own have something contrary to God's will and it's our right to be contrary to that will. Truthfully we DO have something contrary to God's will in us but it's only to our detriment not to our betterment.  We need God's will to be done in us as we realize God's will truly is our will, our desire, our hope.  We use our will to choose His will, freely.

Dead to Sin.

Being dead to sin is so important. Satan would have us deceive ourselves into believing it is impossible to be dead to sin. So why then would the word of God say this--

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Satan is a great deceiver, the best deceiver in existence and if we don't believe this then we are deceiving ourselves.

Please Father God in heaven, please help us to not be deceived by the great deceiver that you've conquered. Satan still works his deception at every opportunity, please keep us from all his evil. Please. All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!

*******

The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee- (Excerpt)

'During the battle it is positively essential that the believer stand on Romans 6.11, acknowledging himself as one with the Lord: the Lord’s death is his death. Such faith releases him from the authority of the evil spirits since they can have no power over the dead.

This position must be firmly taken.

In conjunction with such a stand as this there must be the USE OF GOD'S WORD against all the lies of the enemy, because at this juncture the adversary will lie to the saint by suggesting that he has fallen beyond any hope of restoration. If he listens to this guile he will surely tumble into the greatest peril of all.

He should remind himself that Calvary has destroyed Satan and his evil hosts already (Heb. 2.14; Col. 2.14-15).

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil

Col 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 

Col 2:15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

The work of salvation is finished that all may experience deliverance out of the powers of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1.13).

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son

Suffering for the sake of recovering ground assures a person of that which the enemy is afraid of, and how urgent that the ground be recovered. Consequently, whenever the wicked powers inflict new and greater afflictions upon the believer, let him perceive that these are from the enemy and then let him refuse and disregard them, neither worrying nor talking about them.'

Fight!

You will have a fight on your hands, a fight that you can scarcely imagine as being real. In fact, you will be tempted to believe this fight doesn't exist.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

You'll go about your daily lives and everything may appear to be fine, but that is only because we've been conditioned to believe that many things that are NOT fine, are good.

Isa_5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? 

Luk 11:35  Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. 

Today, right now, there exists so many evils that are called good that we can hardly live without them as a part of our lives. We CALL evil- good!  And we call good-evil! And this is part is why so many people can't possible realize they are in a spiritual war, a very active, very real spiritual war. They hold up a banner with Jesus' name on it and shout out that He is their Savior and then they set that banner aside and live in a world filled with false goodness. They feel protected by their banner waving believing that is all they need do to dispel the evil from their lives, even as evil inhabits so much of what they do and they don't even realize it because that evil is known as good. We live in a DECEIVED generation, an age of DECEPTION worse than any other time in all of history.  We don't believe we should stand up for God's truth because it has been labeled by mankind as lies and accepted as such by all but the very elect of God.

I don't know about you, but I LONG to be among God's elect! Am I? If I am, it is only by HIS grace, by HIS mercy, by HIS love! 

Read the following and then try to deny the truth-

Luk 13:24  Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 

1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 

1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 

Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 

Heb 10:32  But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; 

Heb 10:33  Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. 

Heb 10:34  For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. 

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith

Tell me, are we in a VERY real spiritual battle?  If you are STRIVING AGAINST sin then you are in that battle, but only if you are truly striving against all sin, and not just striving against what has been labeled as sin by mankind. 

You think that banner you hold up proudly is enough, but it's not, the banner bearers are on the front lines of this battlefield and they will be cut down if they are not actively warring against sin daily!

(Excerpt)

'This element of free will should never be lost sight of. God has granted us an unhampered volition that we may be our own masters, but today the evil spirits have usurped our members and talents. They have become man’s master; he has lost his sovereign rights. To oppose this the believer enters the fray. He continually declares: I am not willing to let the evil spirits encroach on my sovereign rights; I will not allow them to invade my personality; I will not permit them to possess me; I will not follow them blindly; I will not consent to their manipulating me; I will not, I verily am unwilling; I intend to be my own master; I know what I do; I resolve to control myself; I prefer to have my entire being subject to myself; I resist all the works of the wicked ones as well as their right to work on me. In resolving, choosing and refusing with our will we arrest any further working of the enemy. Thereafter we must resist with our will.  The believer commences his life anew following the recovery of his ground. The past is over, and now marks a new beginning. What was offered to the evil spirits has all been reclaimed. The spirit, soul and body of the whole person are retrieved from the enemy’s hand and are rededicated to God. Every inch of the territory surrendered through ignorance has today, one upon another, been recovered. The sovereign power of man is once again returned to him. And how is this done? By rejecting what once was accepted; disbelieving what once was believed; withdrawing from what once he drew nigh to before; destroying what once was erected; canceling what once was

covenanted; retrieving what once was promised; dissolving what once was joined; resisting what once was obeyed; uttering what once went unspoken; opposing what once was cooperated with; and

denying what once was given. Every past consideration, counsel, and permission must be overthrown; even past prayers and answers must be denied.' The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee

Choose.

Fluttering eyelids resist the push to open. Consciousness, a soft whisper longed to be denied. Unable to conquer the demand of awareness, wakefulness takes the place of dark, unknowing sleep. Instant comprehension a new day's beginning with each and every choice as yet unmade. The world of existence harboring the seen and unseen, with faith's charge to believe. Forces surround, swarm, seeking adherence. Will - allowing denial, seeking that which offers without assaulting. Every breath spirit filled- holy versus evil, we choose.  Submit to One, resist the other, we choose. No longer cocooned in sleep's soothing embrace, we must choose or slip senselessly into the day's deception.

Jas_4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Eph 4:27  Neither give place to the devil. 

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 

Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 

2Co 2:10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; 

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

' If lost ground is ever to be recovered it is mandatory that the volition be reactivated. The Christian “henceforth must learn (a) to obey God’s will, (b) to resist the devil’s will, and (c) to exercise his

own will in collaboration with the will of the other saints.' (Excerpt- The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee.)

Please, Lord, please Father in heaven, we would submit to You, we would resist the Devil.

All through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior, now and forever!!!!!!!

Make sure you are choosing Christ - daily!

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

1Co_15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

DAILY we choose, daily our will to walk after Christ is put to the test. DAILY we give ourselves to the LORD and RESIST the devil!

Jas_4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

DAILY!

Truly we ONLY live in the present and nowhere else. Our pasts may shape up but we don't live in them it's impossible. Yes, people may talk about someone living in the past but they are really living in the present but obsessed with the past. Likewise, we can't live in the future. NO ONE is promised tomorrow, not a single person.  We live in the present and in the present we must choose Christ, we must use our will to choose Christ.  If we are NOT actively choosing Christ we are choosing Satan, he is the default choice that we make by not choosing Christ as our Savior, daily. 

Evil spirits will grab ahold of ALL- not some, not a few, not a lot, but ALL those who do not actively choose Christ- constantly.  If we stop actively choosing Christ, the evil spirits will take that as an invitation and do all they can to deceive us. Every evil spirit strives to deceive us into believing we are still Christ's while secretly owning us and our will.  NEVER forget that Christ will tell MANY people to get away from Him, that He never knew them and they in turn are going to cry out how they did so much in His name that surely He has to know them, but HE does not know them and will not claim them as His.

Please, Lord, we would ONLY EVER be YOURS- help us to this end to be found only in YOU, choosing you over all else! Please! All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!!!!!!!

'One common principle underlies the way all ground is relinquished to evil spirits: it is through passivity, the inactivity of the will.' Excerpt 'The Spiritual Man' by Watchman Nee

Our wills must NOT be inactive! We must actively use our will for CHRIST, submitting to HIM always!